Top High Tech Companies in Spokane

Greater Spokane, Inc, is the local Chamber of Commerce. Their job is to market the local area to prospective business start ups, businesses that are expanding or relocating to Spokane.

Important Update to this Post

GSI hasa list of Top High Tech Companies in Spokane, which is duplicated, below. When this was originally posted, from the GSI web site, the list had 50 companies on it, even though many were out of business, had moved, or were not even in Spokane. As of October 2011, GSI has updated the list. The original list of 50 companies has been cut down to just 20.

3 of those 20 are advertising firms, although they do use tech in online advertising and marketing, and 2 are system integrators. These are not “high tech” in a Seattle or a Silicon Valley sense. In case you were wondering.

Here is the original text posting and the list of companies and errors on that list

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The list is unfortunately out of date.

The following 9 companies on their list are no longer in business in Spokane or they no longer exist under the name given on the list:

Agilent (Closed Oct 2010)

A Perfect Web

Columbia Fiber Solutions

Data Mosaics

Getronics (Closed 2009)

Ideal Semiconductors (Web site no longer exists)

General Dynamics – Itronix (Closed Spokane operation in 2009)

Vivato (Closed in 2005)

ACW Solutions (no longer in Spokane)

About 25% of the companies on the list are no longer in business, not really tech firms, or not actually in the area.

(The above list inadvertently listed Isothermal Systems Research as closed. That was in error and occurred due to a confusing news report. ISR is very much in business although it has shrunk from its peak.)

There is no official definition of what defines a “high tech” company. By some definitions, a “high tech” company is one that designs and develops new technology. A company that uses technology developed elsewhere is probably not a high tech business – they are usually consumers of high tech products or systems integrators. Some, like the Cisco office in Spokane, are small sales offices, not high tech R&D or manufacturing.

Some do not consider “information technology”, which is distinct from computer science, to be “high tech”. For example, a systems integrator that installs and configures computer networks in an office would not be considered “high tech” but a software developer that employs staff with computer science degrees to design and implement computer software solutions would be “high tech”.

Others look at the percent of revenue spent on an organization’s research and development, while the OECD calculates a “research intensity” number for businesses. Those with a high R&D intensity tend to be high tech.

Several companies on the GSI “High Tech” list are questionable to designate as a “high tech” business:

Ascentium – online advertising

Avista Advantage – uses technology to provide online billing services

BECU – it’s a credit union!

ILF Media – media producer, especially video production

Purcell Systems – primarily a sheet metal manufacturer that builds metal cabinets for use in cellular base stations and other applications. While some of their cabinets feature telemetry, presumably temperature or security measures, this would not be considered “high tech” in a Silicon Valley sense.

Two genuine high tech companies on the list are located quite distant from Spokane:

InnovaTek – high tech business in the Tri Cities (150 miles away)

Schweitzer Engineering Labs – high tech business building products for the electrical power industry, in Pullman, Wa (about 90 miles away)

SIRTI is not a high tech company – it is a government agency that works as a technology and business start up incubator. They are involved in providing assistance to many early stage businesses, especially focusing on technology and bioscience. They recently announced that their business incubation services are now being offered also in Seattle.

Liberty Lake Internet Exchange no longer exists – it was merged into the company Tierpoint, which does exist, and which provides some of the best Internet hosting services in the United States.

About 25% of the companies listed no longer exist, are not really high tech companies, or are are located a long way from Spokane.

Several additional companies ought to be listed but are missing from the list. Another local promotional group claims Spokane has “150 technology-based companies” – a number that has oddly remained constant since first being used in 2004, suggesting no growth since then or another badly out of date list.

At this time there is not an accurate list of high tech companies in Spokane and I probably won’t spend the time to find them.

About

In early 2009 I wondered why several prominent businesses had closed and moved elsewhere and began to look into figuring that out. This web site is the culmination of a part time hobby in understanding why many companies closed or left Spokane.

Click on the "Start Here" link. I was surprised to learn these problems have been around for decades and are documented in official reports on the region's economy.

This web site is based on actual data. Because much of the data is sour, that may be misinterpreted as cynical. There is a difference between realist and cynical. But regarding the review of 30 years of economic strategy reports - that's borderline cynical and with good reason.

The purpose of this web site is to share what I found - not to pick a fight. Data sources are usually referenced; some data had to be re-typed by hand and I could have made a mistake. Some data sources could be out of date or might not make sense - I've tried to identify those. Some may be wrong - that happens - consider this like the rumor web sites and verify for yourself. May be my interpretations are hare brained. Please post corrections in the comments. I hope the information is useful to you. Thank you. If you spot an error, please leave a comment with the correction.

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